TheFamily »

(now with pictures.  poor baby, the only time i could grab a picture of his bites was while he was sound asleep.)

Why, yes, I am still alive.  We did, however, had to choose to let the phone/internet/dish go whilest we paid other bills.  And, now, I see that sweet little green light on my modem that tells me y’all are here waitin’ on me.  Howdy!  How are y’all?  I sure missed you these last few days.

On to a few of the random things on my mind..

In our paid-tv-free days we discovered that there was a new free channel.  It’s the Obama channel.  Have you seen this?  It’s not the content of the channel, it’s the fact that each time I turned on the tv there he was talking quietly, peacefully, non-stop.  It’s a little reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984.  Do you remember the telescreens?  It’s a little comical.  If it’s not a little frightening.  Just sayin’.

As my children were mocking my rearranging they were pushing stuff around the room.  TheOldest (who so rarely gets a word wrong) started yelling, “He Ho!  Push, you guys, He Ho!  He Ho!”  (and no, I didn’t correct him, I was too busy laughing.)

Speaking of rearranging…

My husband said today that he was thinking about putting little velcro strips on the walls in the living room in different places and then putting the matching pieces on the backs of all my picture frames.  He said then I could move my pictures around as much as I wanted and not worry about holes in the wall.  I think he just wants me to not touch the furniture (or his sock drawer!).

Oh, and speaking of the things my honey says…

The other day we light-heartedly asked the kiddos if they would like to have more babies in the house (I know, we’re crazy like that) and as they were excitedly saying yes and asking when, my husband says, “I don’t know but we better start workin’ on it.”  I cringed and thought, “WHAT?!  Do you know the door you’re opening?!”  And as though right on cue my Middlest said, “How do you work on it?”  And without missing a beat my husband said, “By rubbing on Mama’s belly and saying to it whether you want a boy or a girl.”  Good.  That’s good.  Remind me to not hand over health class to the coach.

And segueing with the health topic…

We have now discussed that we’re going to have to start a separate medical fund just for TheBaby-est.  Yesterday, while I sat outside with my kiddos, in clear view of all of them, my Baby-est stepped in an ant pile and then decided to dig in it.  By the time he screamed and I realized what was happening, they had bitten a few times one foot, all over one hand, and a few on the other hand that we was using to get them off.  Benadryl, Tylenol, a bath, and Hydrocortisone later and we started to breathe easy.  Until this morning when I realized that I was dealing with an 18 month old who would dig at the sores relentlessly.  So off to the doctor for some good antibiotic ointment and even some oral medicine.  I was so thankful for no crazy breathing reaction and it not being any worse than it was.  But.. Oh.  My.  Goodness.  I’m tellin’ ya, gonna be the end of me.

Thankfulness…

This morning on the way to drop my honey off at work down our winding, narrow road, we were hit by the vehicle coming our direction.  They crossed the line and hit us.  Amazingly, they only hit our side view mirror.  I was holding my coffee and only about a tablespoon spilled on me.  Really.  Unreal.  We were so thankful.  SO thankful.  How are we so blessed?  It really puts everything else in perspective.  The vehicle didn’t stop.  Just kept on going.  Hit and run.  How is that even possible?  I cannot believe how blessed we were.  Are.  Thank you, Father.

What are you thankful for this week?

TheFamily »

We waited until we were sure the bigger kids could handle a bigger pool.  We waited until we were sure we could handle the kids handling a bigger pool.  We waited until we had the money.  We waited until the end of the season clearances.  We waited 2 days after filling it for the rain to stop.  And evidently we waited until global warming corrected itself and the local forecasters could say things like “This has to be record temperatures for Arkansas.”

Getting Started

The Last Time We'll See The Sun For Days

The Cutest Little Pirates You Ever Did See

“We have enough floaties for an olympic-sized pool.” ~The Local Comedian

Queen Of All Floaties

Hypothermia In August

Ahoy There, Matey!

TheFamily »

ok, one of the many down sides to hacking somebody’s theme and trying to learn along the way is that sometimes you make a mistake.  a really big mistake.  like losing the ability to write a post.  really.  i could change anything i wanted on my whole site, but everytime i tried to actually post something, it would lock up my entire computer.  freeze.  control, alt, delete, type of freeze.  argh.  i had gotten to the point of thinking that i might even write y’all a message in the sidebar or comment on one of my own posts so that it would show up, or maybe even change my header to have what i wanted to say in it.  good grief.  and the totally ridiculous part is that i have had this problem before and fixed it.  but to no avail this time.  fear not, i put the “fix” page in my favorites.  now, when i blow my site up again, and i will, i always do, i’ll at least know where to go to fix it.  argh. 

so, i’ve been learning code like a crazy woman.  php.  i’m learning to like it.  not love it yet, but at least tolerate it.  and i’ve learned the best way to control my content is to put it back in one blog and manage it through categories.  i know y’all are all glazing over by now, so i won’t ramble on about the details, but i’m just sayin’ that i’m still workin’ on it.  the last way is what i liked, but managing seperate blogs, and feeding a front blog, was just too much.  i think this will be much simpler.  i hope. 

“All Is Forgiven” got accepted into the art competition!!  I get to go to a fancy-schmancy opening night, just for the “artists” dinner and everything.  ah.mazing!!  i’m so excited!!  now, if i can just take first place or at least people’s choice - then we’ll really be in the money! 

still schoolin’.  still lovin’ it.  it’s become just a way of life now, and less a battle, staged, and weird.  i love that even more.

did i mention that we weaned a girl from a paci a month or so back?  so now there are no pacis in our house.  for the first time in forever.  and my baby boy is starting to repeat everything.  so sweet!

i’ve been keeping notes on posts i want to put out here.  so i’ll try to keep some flowing.

and michelle!  join the ranks of donna and all the rest of the world that i have left behind and done wrong.  i’m sorry.  and i want to connect with you.  i’ve tried googling you, calling info for your name, everything!  email me, woman!!  suzannerparker(at)gmail(dot)com

TheFamily »

i’m officially to the point in the pregnancy that i start counting how many weeks left as opposed to how many i am.  i’m in the single digits now - 9 weeks to go til the e.t.a.    not much new to report really, except the braxton-hicks contractions are really rockin’ me lately.  and we have the baby shower on february 10th.  i can’t wait!  it’ll be so good to see everybody again! 

we’ve been studying Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McClosky this week in our homeschooling.  and the boys are loving it.  tomorrow we’re taking our field trip to the Peabody in Little Rock to see the ducks parade themselves down to the fountain to play for the day.  we’re so excited!  my plan, when i get organized (yeah, right!) is to do at least a weekly post on our schooling, what we’re doing, the cute projects the boys come up with, and the funny things they say.  for instance, the other day we were doing our vocabulary words one of which was molting - which my 5 year old at first called molding - and my 3 year old wanted to know what the ducks looked like when they lost their old feathers - in his little head they lost them all at once!  he said, “i know what they look like - they look like bald-head eagles!”  needless to say, we looked up molting ducks online and were able to see that they just look a little rough, not bald!  another of our words was incubating.  we discussed it and later that evening our oldest told daddy that mama was incubating our new baby!  indeed, sir, i think i am!

in other news, we bid on the house.  now we wait til monday, i think, to find out if we make it to the next round of this house thing.  my husband took this when we went to look at the house we’ve been praying for.  i call this one “dreamin’”.  this is the room the kids want if we get the house and i think this pic says so much.  that night when we got home, our 5 year old said, “mama, if we get that new house it will be the luxury house.”  yes, it would.  i concur, captain!  we are, obviously, still praying for His will in this.  i look back and smile at the big house in our old hometown.  we threw all caution to the wind to get that house and prayed, pretty outrightly to get it no matter what.  i wonder if God might have allowed that one to teach us a gentle small lesson.  one that He knows best, even when we might initially be disappointed.  as most of y’all know, we spent more time at that house cursing the curses!  i always said i had a love/hate relationship with that house and pearl said he just had a hate/hate relationship with it!!  so, i say that to say this - we learned a lesson.  we don’t want this house at ALL costs.  we just want it if it’s His will.  there’s no telling what He might be saving us from.  i just REALLY want it to be His will!  as usual, when we know - you’ll know!

i haven’t made the time to work on my site anymore.  i’ll get to it sometime!  but please keep comin’ back - i’ll eventually make more improvements.  in the meantime take a look around - i have a photo album that i’ll try to keep updating and i hope to have some pretty cool links - whenever i figure that out!